As no guide has been written yet for the Protection spec, this useful thread has been stickied as un up-to-date state of the spec.
Do not hesistate to ask questions, even if we don't have a guide we have plenty of people able to help.
- Senen
Protection Warrior FAQ
Source: Gliff
Edited: 09/21/13
Q: I heard about this new ability called Riposte that makes avoidance stat stacking viable in 5.4, but I also heard that Protection Warriors benefit from Crit right now. Should I stack Avoidance or Crit or Mastery?
A: At the moment there is no wrong answer. There are pluses and minuses to each and you should really decide what works for you and your raid.
Mastery:
+ The physical damage intake is very smooth with almost no spikes
+ Higher Mastery stats in 5.4 resulting in many crit blocks which in turn give 10 rage
- Lower benefit from Riposte since your avoidance will be much lower then someone who is stacking avoidance
Parry/Dodge:
+ Lowest overall damage taken
+ Damage done increases significantly
+ High rage generation due to high crit from Riposte (Shield Slams and Devastates crits = 10 rage) and revenge spam due to revenge CD resetting when you dodge/parry and attack
-Spikes in damage taken which may result in being more difficult to heal
Crit:
+Highest overall DPS
+Great for off-tanking when you will not be tanking for the vast majority of the fight
-Highest overall damage taken
Q: So I decided to stack avoidance. How should I balance my parry and dodge rating?
A: First of all, whenever you are talking about balancing Parry and dodge rating, you always want to use rating NOT percentage.
There are 2 ways to approach this.
1: Balance them using something like THIS to have an "optimal" balance for diminishing returns. (Source: Muuku)
2. Throw as much into Parry as possible to take advantage of the HOLD THE LINE GLYPH. The downside is that you lose out on some avoidance due to the DR on parry although the amount you lose is very little (a few 10ths of a percentage of avoidance).
Q: I'm planning on playing my Warrior as Protection this patch, but my tank set is very undergeared. Would it be better to use my DPS gear until I can upgrade to higher ilvl tanking gear?
A: The DPS gear will be just fine. As mentioned above, crit stacking may not be ideal for your situation, but it is better then using tanking gear that is a tier or 2 behind.
Q: Should I still Hit/Exp hard-cap?
A: YES!!! Always
Q: What is the difference between Shield Block and Shield Barrier? Should I be spamming Shield Barrier if I am stacking avoidance stats?
A: No matter how you are gearing, you want to keep a 100% possible uptime on you Shield Block if there is any blockable damage incoming. The extra rage should be used on Barriers in between your Shield Blocks.
There are exceptions to this as always.
-If high unblockable damage is incoming then it may be a good idea to pool your rage to have full Shield Barriers up for that ability
-If your vengeance level is high enough that you can spam barriers and take literally zero damage
-If you are dangerously close to dying, Barrier can be used as an "Oh Shit" button
Q: What are the BIS trinkets?
A: Trinkets, as always, are very situation. 90% of the time there will never be 2 BIS trinkets that you use for every fight.
Q: I heard Glyph of Resonating Power puts Thunder Clap in our single target rotation. Is that true?
Yes, it would be ahead of devastate.
Original Post (Leaving this here for the sake of clarity if you choose to read the entire thread.)
After many posts and (quite a few) complaints, it looks like Blizzard has finally smiled down upon us. I'm sure it will take time to math out what is the most appropriate but the possibility of a Crit>Mastery>*.* or Mastery>Crit>*.* setup sounds absolutely fantastic. It'll be interesting to see how it will play out on the PTR but the possibilities sounds amazing.
Combining
along withDevastate and Shield Slam critical strikes and critical blocks Enrage you, generating 10 Rage and increasing physical damage done by 10% for 6 sec.
could make for some amazing setups, regardless or physical or magical heavy damaging bosses.Item - Warrior T16 Protection 2P Bonus (New) You heal for 30% of all damage blocked with a shield and 30% of all damage absorbed by Shield Barrier.
Can you be giddy over patch notes? I am! Here's to hoping it's as good as it looks.
*STARES AT THECK*